Across the street from the Cairo Customs House is the A. B. Safford
Memorial Library. This Queen Anne architecture building was constructed
in 1883. Mrs. Alfred B. Safford, as a memorial to her husband, who died
in 1877 had the library erected by the Lancaster and Rice Mfg. Co.,
presenting it to the City of Cairo on July 19, 1884. Few changes have
been made in the red brick building. The leaded stained glass windows
are the original ones. Two niches on the outside of the building at the
entrance hold statues of Clio, the Greek Muse of history, and Concordia,
a Roman goddess of peace. These were presented to Mrs. Safford by the
citizens of Cairo in gratitude for the library.

The
first floor consists of a vestibule, hall, the adult reading room,
reference room, the children's reading room, and the stack room. In the
entrance hall can be seen the wide staircase with ornamental balustrade
and wainscoting of walnut, oak and gum, graduated to form an ornate
effect typical of the Queen Ann period. This combination of woods is
used in the decor of the walls and ceilings throughout the building. In
the adult reading room are ornate shelves that were originally in the
Woman's Club reading room and now are used for periodicals. The huge
round oak table was a gambling table from a steamboat. The chairs with
U.S. carved in the backs are from the Custom House, as are the five
large walnut display cabinets and the Italian marble mantel of the
fireplace, all circa 1867. A rare Tiffany grandfather's clock stands on
the first landing of the stairs. The library has been told that only
four of this particular kind were made by Tiffany and Co.

On
the second landing is a fourteenth century Italian rosewood credenza.
The auditorium upstairs was designed to seat 200, and Mrs. Safford
provided the appropriate number of chairs, of which there are still 180.
The beautiful chandelier originally hung in the Cairo Opera House, which
was opened in 1881. In 1962, the new stack room was added to the
building to accommodate the increasing number of books in the library's
collection. In 1984, a Special Collections Room was added, made possible
by funding from the Oris B. Hastings Charitable Foundation. In order to
preserve the library's valuable collection of historical materials, a
second-floor storeroom was remodeled to create an environment of
controlled temperature, humidity and light. The room contains a treasure
trove of information, from the Civil War to the 1937 Flood, as well as
books, maps, and pictures of importance to Cairo and Alexander County
history.

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